This section provides background information related to the present disclosure and is not necessarily prior art.
Vehicles typically include front and rear suspension components to improve ride and handling of the vehicle. A vehicle suspension system, such as a rear suspension for example, typically includes a primary spring and a shock absorber. The primary spring resiliently supports the vehicle's chassis and body relative to a wheel of the vehicle. In some applications, the primary spring is a compression style coil spring. The shock absorber is configured to absorb and dampen vibration of the primary spring.
Vehicle suspensions typically also include a striker and a secondary spring device that is commonly known as a “jounce bumper” or a “bump-stop”. The striker and jounce bumper are mounted to components of the vehicle body, chassis, or suspension (e.g. a spring link or arm) that are coupled to each other for relative movement. Typically, the striker and jounce bumper pivot relative to each other and are aligned to contact one another at a predetermined pivot angle. The jounce bumper is typically a rubber or resilient polymer material and is positioned to impact the striker before the primary spring bottoms out. The jounce bumper is generally configured to compress against a contact surface of the striker and prevent bottoming out of the primary spring.
The contact surface of typical strikers is flat or concave. The pivoting motion of the striker relative to the jounce bumper can create undesirable side loading forces as the jounce bumper compresses against the flat or concave contact surface. These side loading forces can result in the jounce bumper bending instead of compressing throughout the jounce bumper's designed compression range.